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Hassan Faour
Professor
ENG105
24th October 2014

United Nations Discourse Community

The United Nations was established on the 24 of October 1945 to promote

international cooperation and peace. It was created following the Second World
War as a replacement of the ineffective League of Nations, which was created by
the U.S. after World War 1 to maintain peace in Europe even though the U.S was
not a member. Its headquarters are situated in Manhattan, New York City where
the majority of the corporate decisions and conferences takes place. The initial
opening of the United Nation took place on the 25th April 1945 were the first
conference was held in San Francisco attending up to 50 countries supported by
the governing backbones.

The United Nation is a discourse community because in each of their

assemblies they have one goal to change the world to be a better place by trying
to solve important issues happening in the world. The mission statement of the
United Nations is to work for the protection of all human rights for all people; to
help empower people to realize their rights; and to assist those responsible for
upholding such rights in ensuring that they are implemented.

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They meet up every year in September and six main organs, the general
Assembly, the Security Council the Economic, organize them and Social Council,
the Trusteeship, the Secretariat and the International with each house could be
considered a different genre of the other. They have a special lexis that is the
use of sophisticated English and no slang allowed. Some of the lexis used are:
The chair, the house, submitter, motion, a resolution, have the floor, yield the
floor, point of information, point of order, point of personal privilege, amendment,
devising the house, etc.

Everyone should treat the others with respect and talk when the chair ask
them to. They should all know the terms of communication of the United Nations.
The participants in the United Nations are all countries who are willing to
contribute in improving the world we live in by making it safer and influencing
peace. At its founding 51 countries where participating but now there 193. Not
participating can have a big impact on your country and economy. North Korea is
a good example. When these countries have agreed to join the United Nations
they have to accept all of the obligations set by an international treaty called the
UN Charter.

I found out that by watching an actual conference of the United Nations

discussion online on YouTube and making an interview with one of the Model
United Nations students at The University of Miami would be best way to make

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an evaluation of the United Nations. By watching many United Nations
conferences you can clearly notice that everything is very organized and
everyone get the right to talk whether large, small, rich or poor. The chair is their
to make sure everyone get that opportunity and to keep everything in order. In
the conference, suggestion for a solution may lead to a voting for a solution to
get edited. Then another voting happens for the resolution to the General
Assembly where the actual voting on the solution happens, every country gets
one vote. For any important question are decided if (any important debate) twothirds of the assembly should vote for approval. Other matters half of the
assembly should vote for approval. However in the Security Council there are
five permanent members (Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States)
and 10 elected members for a period of two year. The permanent members all
have the veto power, which allow each of these five countries to block any
resolution they are against and hence it will fail. In the Security Council unlike
other councils, it has the right to enforce its decision. It may use economical
sanction on any countries that does not follow the rules.

The Model United Nations (MUN) at University of Miami simulates the

United Nations to allow students to have a better insight to how this organization
function and its purpose. Off course all the resolution solved in the MUN will not
be implemented in real life. So with an interview with Gabriella Fawaz, one of the
delegates of the MUN at UM we came to a conclusion that the MUN is split into
comities by topic (e.g. health care). Every delegate is supposed to protect the

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point of view he is asked to represent. Off course in the actual United Nations
Delegates are from the countries they are representing. All delegates work
together to form a resolution that will make all countries agrees to, but this is not
always happen. The voting then happens and the majority of the delegates have
to agree for the resolution to pass and voting does not have to unanimous. In the
MUN there is a specific dress code, which is business attire, other dress codes
may not be accepted. The MUN and the UN are both discourse communities,
MUN is mainly organized with the goal to educate students about the UN, but in
the UN all participating countries have the common basic goal to protect humans
rights on international level.

Considering the wealth of available examples, the United Nations is one of the
more prevalent models for a real world working discourse community. Due to the
weight and importance of each decision made by the United Nations,
organization and planning are clear in the majority of its dealings.

While

protecting human rights and promoting global health and prosperity are the basis
of the United Nations actions, every member acts in accordance with strict rules
that keep the workings of this discourse community on course with the main
goals. When considering the six characteristics of a discourse community, (goal,
intercommunication, participation, Genre, Lexis and different levels of expertise)
discussed by Swales in writing about writing p270, we need look no further than
the United Nations.

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Works Cited:
Swales, John, The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing 2nd
edition: a college reader E.D Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston, New
York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014, 217-228.Print
Interview
Gabriella Fawaz. Personal Interview, 24th October 2014